Monday, October 24

Don't Sugarcoat It awards for October 24

Blue Gal's most recent Don't Sugarcoat It award goes to Jurassic Pork over at Yep, another Goddamned blog for his open letter to the Democratic Leadership. Well written, even poetic, and his laundry list of issues We Care About is succinct and correct. Blue Gal loves his depiction [addressed to the all-too-wimpy Democratic leadership] of Mesdames Pelosi and Boxer:

Watch Nancy Pelosi and Barbara Boxer in action some time. Nancy Pelosi putting Tom DeLay’s arrest warrant on the democratic leader’s website (it’s since been taken down. Hm) showed bigger, more hirsute and semen-engorged cajones than the rest of the Democratic House showed during the 108th session of Congress.

Watch Barb Boxer live up to her name and learn how to filet and not fellate an over-the-hill schoolyard bully like John Bolton or put Condi Rice’s well-shod feet to the fire...

Observe how fearless these ladies are of the stale and moldy as year-old bread charges of partisanship. Observe how dedicated they are to their constituency and the American people in general and let it rub off on you.

There's more, and you should read it, but since Blue Gal's Sunday School teacher might be reading too, she won't quote the really nasty bits. They're good though.

Honorable mention in the no sugarcoating category goes to a Republican Blue Gal loves, David Gergen. This has been quite a week for Gergen, in hot demand from talking heads shows because, well, he's a Republican that, surprise, never was asked to work for Dubya or never did. Either way, it's because he's intelligent and has integrity, so any job in this White House would not be a "good match" personnel-wise.

By now most of you have heard or read his "wheels are off the wagon" comment about this ugly period in White House history. He also is sticking to the guns re the "Cheney might be indicted" story, and sticking it to the Republican talking point that the treasongate story is being blown out of proportion:

I don't think that the press has over-dramatized this story. This is a major, important story in American political life. After all, the investigation, we know, is focusing on the two men who are closest to the President and the Vice-President of the United States. That's point one. And secondly, rapidly, if there are indictments, this story is also becoming an indictment of the way the Bush administration led us into war. Those are two important, dramatic stories.

In Talking Head Land, for a Republican to say that is more than a Don't Sugarcoat It moment.

Scooter, since you're in charge of the enemies list, please pencil in "and Blue Gal" right after Gergen's name, will ya?

Gergen's last stint at the White House was actually with Clinton because Clinton was smart enough to hire him. It's probably sacrilege for someone named "Blue Gal" to say it, but there is a brand of Repubs, Jesu Christi we ain't seen 'em much lately, who are class acts. They're intelligent and have integrity. They don't happen to be on Fox News or in this administration (duh), but William Weld, David Gergen, and a few others are actually decent human beings. Blue Gal hopes and prays that when this cesspool of a White House gets cleaned out, starting at the top, we not only have a Democratic Majority but hand over the Republican Party to some people with intelligent vision. And Gergen, honey, you're at the top of Blue Gal's list.

If any Blue Gal groupies wanna encourage Gergen to keep the faith and the courage, you may do so here if you tell him Blue Gal sent you.

If you're going to include Weld on your list of OK Repugs, how about Whitman? Yeah, she was a member of the Bushyboy cabinet, but she quit and wrote a book about how the party's being screwed over by the neocons.

And by the way, as a Bay Stater my own self (how come there's no name for us -- Massachusettsian? Massachusettsite? Massachusettser?) I can semi-proudly say that William Weld is the only member of his party I've ever come close to voting for. The first time he ran for governor (against the Dark Lord, John Silber) I wrote in "none of the above". When he ran for reelection against Mark Roosevelt, I preferred Weld, but couldn't bring myself to actively vote for him, so I abstained that year.

He's a snob, a union buster, and a bit of an ass, but at least he believes in leaving people alone as long as they're not hurting anyone.

I was never too crazy about Weld, especially when he was governor in the early 90's and went on thnis cost-cutting jihad consolidating all the police forces and closing almost half the registries (his Treasurer, Joe Malone, really pissed me off when he actually raised the already-astronomical odds of winning any lottery prize). However, his successor, Paul Cellucci, who lives right around the corner from my house, was and still is a dimwit. After coming home from work at the Statehouse on Beacon Hill, he could be seen bringing his tapes back to Blockbuster on the orders of his wife Jan, who herself is a real piece of work.

Our trouble, besides being enamored of Republican governors, is that we keep electing these idiots who use the governorship as a mere stepping stone for better if not necessarily bigger things. I'm sure you recall Weld wanting to become ambassador of Mexico before Jesse Helms shot him down. Then Cellucci leaves the Commonwealth in the incapable hands of Jane Swift, a woman who was to the governorship what Michael Brown was to FEMA, so he could become Ambassador of Canada.

Now we hear that Mitt's entertaining dreams of being President.

Uh uh.

Not after that "Let's spy on Muslim college students" brainstorm of his.

I just wish that we'd elect a Democrat who's good at running a state and wants to do it for life, like Daley or LaGuardia, instead of these career-minded yuppies. New York can have Weld.

Yes, we've had our share of fine leaders. I've lived here at least part time since King, and I guess the only one I've had any respect for was the Duke (an employee of mine lived down the street from him, and she always spoke highly of Mike and Kitty).

And of course I remember Joe "Da Happy Guy" Malone. I seem to recall him getting into a bit of trouble over a gym he owned on Beacon Hill.

But Swifty... she was one of a kind. How much did she get paid for teaching that course at Northeastern -- the one she didn't show up for? Would that salary have covered the money she spent on getting flown between Boston and North Adams whenever she felt like it?

Mitzi's never going to be president. It just couldn't happen. An old boss of mine grew up in Michigan when Mitt's daddy was governor, and apparently he was a bit of a falangist.

No, I work at home, so I never meet anyone. Besides, I'm only a couple of blocks from what BG humbly refers to as "Universita Harvardiana Theologia" (I just call it the Div School), so my neighborhood of the 'Ville as basically a bit of Cambridge they refuse to acknowledge.